Behind a deceptively mild citywide downtick, borough foreclosure markets pulled into significantly diverging paths as Brooklyn cases were nearly halved and the Bronx hit a new, record high. Meanwhile, Queens remained unchanged, Staten Island surged back up and Manhattan cooled slowly.
Key Takeaways:
- NYC foreclosures inch down 3% Y-o-Y, totaling 399 first-time cases in Q1 2026
- Lis pendens remain nearly flat, ticking down 1% Y-o-Y to 1,538 filings
- Brooklyn foreclosures fall 45% Y-o-Y for slowest quarter since mid-2022
- Manhattan foreclosure activity continues to level off after Q3 record peak
- Queens logs 167 first-time filings — more than Manhattan, Brooklyn and Staten Island combined — despite remaining nearly flat year-over-year
- Staten Island foreclosure activity more than doubles to highest figure since mid-2022
- Bronx foreclosure sector marks most active post-pandemic quarter with 67 first-time filings
- Two-family and condo foreclosures drop with Brooklyn slowdown, while Staten Island and Bronx accelerations push single family filings upwards
NYC Overview
3% Citywide Downtick Hides Complex Borough-Level Activity
The NYC foreclosure market started 2026 with a slight decrease in the first quarter by coming in 3% below year-ago levels with 399 first-time filings. Pre-foreclosures also ticked down, albeit by a negligible 1%, to total 1,538 lis pendens. Notably, this marked Q1 2026 as the slowest first quarter in three years, both in terms of NYC pre-foreclosures and foreclosures.
Granted, this tempered start to the year may already reflect the recent New York Court of Appeals ruling on the retroactivity of the Foreclosure Abuse Prevention Act, but it also covered up much more nuanced and wide-ranging market dynamics at the borough level.
Brooklyn (62 foreclosures) presented the most dramatic change after a 45% drop in filings brought it to its lowest activity since mid-2022. Manhattan (45) also trended down, but at a much milder 17% as it continues to cool off after its historic peak in Q3 2025.
At the opposite end of the spectrum stood the Bronx (67), which closed its most active post-pandemic quarter following a 24% year-over-year (Y-o-Y) increase in filings. Staten Island was on the rise, too, shooting up 123% Y-o-Y for the highest number of foreclosures since mid-2022.
Meanwhile, Queens (167) remained flat, but continued as the most active foreclosure market in the city. In fact, it surpassed the combined caseload of Brooklyn, Manhattan and Staten Island.
Pre-foreclosure trends were more balanced among the boroughs and had far less-drastic dynamics. Even so, one of the more significant changes was the 31% Y-o-Y increase in Manhattan lis pendens (68), but that rise still represented only 16 additional cases. Notably though, within each borough, foreclosure and pre-foreclosure trends completely opposed each other.
NYC Asset Types
Single Family Homes Represent 2 in 5 NYC Foreclosures in Q1
Although two-family homes drove NYC foreclosures for the last three years, 2026 began with single family homes as the dominant asset type. More precisely, foreclosures of single family homes (164) rose by nearly half compared to the same time last year. They also accounted for 41% of cases in Q1 2026, bolstered by the increase in activity in Staten Island and the Bronx as single family home foreclosures in both boroughs more than tripled year-over-year
Conversely, condo (51) and two-family home (117) foreclosures declined along with Brooklyn’s slowdown. As a result, condos accounted for 13% of first-time filings in early 2026 as opposed to one in five a year ago, while two-family homes made up 29% of cases, down from 38% a year earlier. Co-op foreclosures (67) declined, too, slowed by the drop in distressed Manhattan co-ops.
Brooklyn Totals Only 62 New Cases for Slowest Quarter Since Mid-2022
Usually trailing Queens as the city’s second-most-active foreclosure market, Brooklyn saw a sudden, 45% Y-o-Y drop in first-time filings during the first three months of the year. The 62 cases recorded here during that period represented the slowest quarter for the Brooklyn foreclosure market since Q3 2022 in the period following the lifting of NYC’s pandemic foreclosure moratorium.
Not only was this the most drastic borough-level drop in activity, but it also brought Brooklyn’s foreclosure total below the Bronx’s caseload and landed just four filings ahead of Staten Island. Conversely, Brooklyn pre-foreclosures (526) were nearly flat, inching up a modest 3% Y-o-Y.
Meanwhile, the borough’s foreclosure hotspot supplied eight new cases, concentrating 13% of the borough’s caseload in zip 11234, which covers parts of Georgetown, Bergen Beach, Mill Basin, Old Mill Basin, Flatlands, Marine Park and East Flatbush.
Brooklyn is also home to two of the city’s five most expensive foreclosures by lien amount that are headed to auction in Q2, although neither is located in the borough’s Q1 hotspot. Specifically, a 2,208-square-foot, two-family home in Fiske Terrace is headed to the block with a $1.64 million lien. It’s joined by an 1,820-square-foot Crown Heights condo with a $1.52 million lien.
Queens Records More Foreclosures Than Brooklyn, Manhattan & Staten Island Combined
Queens was nearly flat in the first quarter of the year, ticking up a negligible 1% Y-o-Y to 167 foreclosures for an increase of just two additional cases. However, with the sharp slowdown in Brooklyn, Queens foreclosures surpassed the combined caseload of Brooklyn, Manhattan and Staten Island, even as Staten Island filings rose sharply. At the same time, Queens pre-foreclosures ticked down 3% Y-o-Y to 538 filings.
Although Queens often claims the city’s foreclosure hotspot, in the first quarter of this year, two of its zip codes and one Staten Island zip tied for that title with 12 first-time filings each. In Queens, those were Saint Albans’ 11412 zip code and zip 11413, which covers parts of Laurelton, Brookville, Springfield Gardens and Rochdale.
However, it was zip 11356 in College Point that supplied the second-most-expensive foreclosure that went to auction in Q1: The 1,614-square-foot, two-story detached home hit the block with a $1.4 million lien, but reverted to the lender at $845,000. Additionally, the borough also supplied the second-priciest foreclosure scheduled for auction in Q2 — a 1,400-square-foot, one-story house in Little Neck that hit the block with a $1.96 million lien.
Manhattan Foreclosures Tick Down to More Familiar Levels
Manhattan also trended down as the borough continued to level off from its historic, 59-foreclosure peak in Q3 2025. Unlike Brooklyn’s dramatic drop, Manhattan declined at a more muted 17% Y-o-Y to close the first quarter of the year with 45 first-time filings. Of these, four were located in the Upper West Side’s 10024 zip code, making this the borough’s foreclosure hotspot in Q1.
Where Manhattan truly stood out was in terms of individual foreclosures: The borough was home to two of the five most expensive foreclosures to come up in Q1, including a 1,549-square-foot, Financial District condo with a $1.25 million lien. Even more notable was the trio of condos at The Museum Tower that went to the block with an $11.35 million lien — likely the result of an overleveraged legacy loan. They reverted to the lender for $7.2 million for an implied shortfall of more than $4 million.
Manhattan will also be the setting for two of the five most expensive foreclosures scheduled for Q2: Set to hit the block in the second half of April are a 4,800-square-foot, single family home in Yorkville with a $14.25 million lien, as well as a 1,333-square-foot unit at Trump Parc with a $1.52 million lien.
At first glance, Manhattan pre-foreclosures (68) seemed to have seen more significant changes, logging a 31% Y-o-Y drop. However, that translated to decrease of just 16 filings in terms of actual lis pendens.
Bronx Hits Post-Pandemic Record High, Surpasses Depressed Brooklyn
Following a particularly active 2025, the Bronx began the year by setting a new post-pandemic record of 67 first-time filings. What’s more, the borough’s 24% Y-o-Y increase combined with the sharp slowdown in Brooklyn filings meant that, for the first time since Q4 2017, the Bronx foreclosure market was more active than Brooklyn’s.
Within this record-high foreclosure activity, one zip code stood out with 10 new cases — zip10469, covering parts of Baychester, Laconia, Pelham Gardens, Williamsbridge and Allerton.
In another sign of this unusually active quarter, the borough also appeared among the city’s most expensive foreclosures in Q1. This came after a 2,025-square-foot, two-family brick in Van Nest hit the block with a $1.15 million lien. It was joined by another two-family home, this one a 2,250-square-foot, one-family conversion in Williamsbridge with a $967,000 lien.
In contrast to the borough’s record foreclosure activity, Bronx lis pendens declined 13% Y-o-Y and generally stayed in line with the last two years of quarterly pre-foreclosure filings.
Staten Island Foreclosure Market Heats Up to 14-Quarter High
Since Q1 2024, Staten Island foreclosures had cooled off to a near stand-still with only a few dozen new cases filed each quarter, despite a strong post-moratorium start. So, as it cooled and other boroughs saw filings rise, the Staten Island foreclosure market established itself as the city’s least active, trailing the other four boroughs even the Bronx.
Then, Staten Island heated up noticeably in the first three months of 2026 as cases jumped 123% Y-o-Y to 58 new filings. Although this figure still trailed the Bronx in Q1, it nevertheless put Staten Island ahead of Manhattan and just four cases behind Brooklyn’s admittedly slow first quarter.
Staten Island’s increased activity was also reflected by the borough’s foreclosure hotspot — Mid-Island’s 11314 zip code. The borough’s usual foreclosure hot zone concentrated 12 first-time filings, meaning one in five new Staten Island foreclosures were filed here in Q1. It also meant that the Staten Island zip tied with Queens’ 11412 and 11413 as the city’s foreclosure epicenters in the first quarter of the year.
Finally, in terms of lis pendens, Staten Island pre-foreclosures showed little activity in Q1 2026, ticking down 4% Y-o-Y to 191 filings.
Data Snapshot: All Boroughs
Q1 2026 NYC Foreclosures & Pre-Foreclosures by Borough
Methodology
Having tracked foreclosure listings for more than a decade, PropertyShark is the only service in New York that guarantees 100% coverage of the local foreclosure market. Because auctions are frequently postponed and/or rescheduled, the statistics referenced in this report include only first-time foreclosures in order to avoid over-reporting the number of distressed properties in the city.
Separately, we also report on lis pendens (pre-foreclosure) filings — legal notices that mark the beginning of the foreclosure process.
Pre-foreclosure data refers to unique properties that had at least one lis pendens filing in Q1 2026, which may be a first-time filing or a refiling. The same building class restrictions apply, excluding co-ops. If more than three units were referenced on the same lis pendens filing, they were excluded in order to avoid accounting for entire buildings.
This report focuses exclusively on residential properties (single and two-family homes; condos; and co-op units) that were scheduled for auction for the first time in Q1 2026.
FAQs
1. Are foreclosure filings increasing in NYC?
No, in Q1 2026, NYC totaled 399 first-time foreclosure filings, down 3% year-over-year.
2. Which borough had the most foreclosures?
Queens was the most active foreclosure market with 167 first-time filings in Q1 2026, marking a 1% increase compared to Q1 2025.
3. Which borough had the fewest foreclosures?
Manhattan the slowest foreclosure market with 45 first-time filings for a 17% decrease compared to Q1 2025.
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This article originally appeared on Propertyshark.com and was syndicated by MediaFeed.co
